Under the Stars
by goldfish400
Summary: When Ruby's mom sends her away to summer camp, Ruby thinks her entire summer will be ruined. Soon after her arrival at camp, however, she learns that she had been wrong the whole time. Human!Rupphire AU. They're in high school, and they're 16-18 years old, but choosing which age exactly is open to interpretation and how you read it.
1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing that got Ruby excited more than anything else combined, then it would have to be when summer rolled around Beach City every year. Seeing as the town was a huge hit with tourists, summer always seemed to come early. More often than not, the schools in the district let out early because the town's population was significantly smaller than the other small cities in towns in the area, which meant the summer always seemed to last longer than it actually was for her.

Today was the last day of school for the year. Ruby sat at her desk, staring intensely at the clock while tapping her fingers on her desk. The day still had a while to go, but even in second period Ruby was ready to bail as soon as the bell rung. Most of her classes today would either consist of watching a movie or having the class to herself, but Ruby's math teacher wanted them to make sure they had their final lesson of the year drilled into their heads so they don't forget it over the summer. He was rambling on about something that had to do with triangles, but Ruby wasn't really paying attention. Nobody was. Ruby knew everyone in this class personally, and she knew for a fact that every kid in this class, herself included, was only pretending to pay attention. One kid was on his phone, one girl was fixing her hair and makeup, and the rest of the class, like Ruby, was anxiously staring at the clock. By the time the class only had a minute or two left in it, nobody was even bothering to pretend anymore. Half the kids had gathered at the door, and the other half gathered in a group to talk about their plans for the summer. As soon as the bell that indicated the end of second period and the start of third, kids were stampeding out of that room like there was no tomorrow.

Ruby ran behind them, and nearly collided with her friend Jade in the hallway.

"Was Mr. A trying to drill a lesson into you guys like the ancient legend of the upperclassmen said he would?" Jade asks, and Ruby rolls her eyes.

"Yeah. He didn't even bother teaching us a new lesson, either. He just kind of rambled on about triangles for an hour straight like he's been doing for the past few months."

Jade paused in her steps. "Interesting; I always thought those were rumors."

"Yeah, I guess not." Ruby shrugged. "So, super boring stuff aside, what are your plans for the summer?"

Jade shrugged. "Meh, not much. I'll probably have to stay home for most of the summer, though, because neither my mom nor dad is allowed much time off in the summer."

"What? That's horrible! Summer time is meant to be exciting" Ruby says, shaking her head. "I think me and my parents are headed to that rad amusement park sometime in July, probably. Want me to ask if you can come with us?" she asks, and Jade pauses, as if thinking something over.

"Which one?"

"I'm not sure it has an official name but it's still really cool."

"Where is it?"

"I'd say it's probably about half an hour from here if you drove. It's really cool. I think you'd really like it."

"Yeah? What do they have there?" Ruby could tell she was beginning to convince her, and smiled.

"Oh man, it's so cool. There are about a thousand rollercoasters, a really tall swing ride that lights up and flashes at night, the Ferris wheel, the water park, I could go on for hours. Please? It'll be so much more fun if you go with me."

"Alright, yeah. Sounds like a lot of fun. Do you have any plans today after school? Maybe we can figure out when we can go then. I'm sure my parents won't mind, they're usually cool with stuff like this".

"Yeah, I should be fine, but I need to go home and ask my mom first."

"Cool."

Ruby smiled. This is exactly what she meant. The summer always brought her social side out, and that meant she had more time for her friends. She was a very isolated person during the school year, mostly due to the fact that her schedule was always so packed. But once it was empty, or school gets out for the summer, she becomes the most social person out of everyone in her friend group. Sure, it was small, but that was still saying a lot.

Ruby's suspicion about her other classes being nothing but movies or the teacher going around asking about summer plans were correct, so every chance she got, she'd try to come in contact with her friends to make plans. By the start of last period, she had already met up with all of her friends and made sure to make plans with them individually with a few random group plans thrown in there as well. Since the last period was always significantly shorter on the last day of school, she packed up her things early and snuck out her classroom door to wander the empty halls. Not before long, however, the final bell of the day ran, and Ruby sprinted for it to make sure she was the first one out of the building. This was her second year in a row doing this, and since it cut off a lot of her time and wasn't caught last year, she saw no reason in doing it again this year. Since Ruby walked home every day, the last thing she wanted was to get stuck in the crowd of people getting rides home. Small population or no, there are still a lot more kids than you'd expect. Especially since she goes to a public high school.

Ruby walked slowly, trying to think of what she would ask her mom about all of her plans. The one that would be the hardest for her mom to say yes to would be Jade tagging along to the amusement park, since that was more of a tradition within her family. She also walked slowly to get a good view of her hometown. Beach City, although beautiful in the winter, was even more so in the summer. The ocean can be seen from just about anywhere, and with the sun reflecting off of it, it always looks like it's sparkling.

She turned down her street, and reached into her short pockets to grab her house key. She unlocked the door and swung it open.

"Hey mom, can I ask you something?" Ruby says, closing the door behind her and tossing her keys and backpack onto the table. "Me and my friends were talking about getting together over the summer, and Jade especially was wondering if she could go to the amusement park with us" she said, but got no response.

"Mom?" she asks, wandering around the house and checking the rooms her mom is most commonly found in. After giving up, she decides to head back to the living room to see if her mom was outside and headed there when she heard Ruby calling her. On her way, however, he tripped over something and fell over, crashing to the ground. She looked behind her and was confused to see two of her suitcases sitting in the middle of the room. "What the-" she starts, but stands up as soon as she heard the door opening. Her mom stepped in.

"Oh, Ruby, you're home." She says, walking over to her and moving Ruby's suitcases aside.

"Mom? Why are my suitcases here?" Ruby asks, heading over to where her mom had put them. "And why are they full?" she asks, and her mother looks at her with confusion.

"I didn't tell you before?" Her mother asks, and Ruby's confused expression gives her mom the answer she was looking for.

"Your father and I have to go away for a month on business, and since we can't leave you home alone for a moth, we decided to try to send you away to summer camp."

"WHAT?" Ruby's shock at her mother's response caused her to yell louder than she intended. "A whole month? But that ruins almost all of my plans with my friends!"

"Oh, Ruby. It won't be so bad. Most people who go end up loving it."

"But not me! I've always hated the idea of it, you know that!"

"I know, but like I said, we can't leave you home alone for a month. Who knows, maybe you'll even change your mind once you get there."

"But what if I don't? Then what?"

"Then you wait patiently until the day you can come back. Trust me, Ruby; you'll have a lot of fun. I promise we'll still go to the amusement park in July."

Ruby grumbled. As much as she hated the idea of being forced to go to summer camp, the possibility of going to the amusement park with Jade was enough to force herself to tolerate it. Ruby sighed in an over exaggerated manner. "Fine. But only if you promise we'll go as soon as I get back."

"I promise"

Ruby was awakened early one morning when somebody shook her lightly. She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. When she looked out the window and noticed it was still dark out, the realization of what today was hit her all at once.

It was the day she was leaving for camp, and her mom's voice was an affirmation of this.

"Ruby, you have to get up now. The bus is leaving from just outside of town in an hour and a half" her mom says, and Ruby groans from both exhaustion and frustration as she stands up. She heads into the other room and plops down on a chair. Her mom places a bowl of cereal in front of her, and she eats it quickly before heading into her room to throw some clothes on. She brushes her hair into a bow, and throws on a random T-shirt and pair of shorts. After she finished getting ready, she walks out the door and they drive to the bus stop where they should be picking her up for summer camp.

"I promise you're going to have a great time" her mom says when Ruby opens the car door. "I'll see you at the end of the month. I love you." she says, and Ruby reaches over her seat and hugs her.

"I love you too, mom" she says, and hops out of the car. There's only about 10 other kids waiting at the station, but Ruby knows they'll be picking up more kids at other stops. She walks over to them, placing her headphones in and leaning against the sign. The last thing she wants is the same lecture from these kids that her mom had been giving her all week. She notices a few more kids get dropped off from the corner of her eyes, and shortly afterwards, the bus arrives. She takes her headphones out and gets on the bus, sitting herself down on the first seat she sees and looks out the window absentmindedly. A moment later, as the bus doors are closing, she notices another person hop out of a car and run towards the bus. It's a girl her age with long blonde hair with bangs that cover both of her eyes, and she's wearing a light blue sundress that flows behind her as she runs.

"Wait for me!" She yells, waving her hands, but the bus driver doesn't seem to notice. The doors are closed and the engine is starting to run. Ruby glances at her nervously, and when she sees him start to pull away, she stands up.

"Wait! Someone's trying to get on!" she flails her hands around, and the bus driver looks out the window and comes to a screeching halt when he sees her. He opens the door, and Ruby can _see_ her sigh with relief as she gets on.

"Thank you" she breaths to Ruby when she gets on, and sits down a few seats behind Ruby. After the bus driver checks to make sure nobody else is trying to hop on at the last minute, he pulls away. He stops about 4 more times, and after that heads right for the summer camp.

Ruby can tell what it looks like from about a mile away, because it has the most ridiculous looking entrance she has ever seen. As soon as they get in, she notices a few things right away that make her wish she could take back her promise to her mom and ask her to go next year. The first is a huge flagpole in the middle of the campground, then the two lines of cabins, the mess hall, even the tiny excuse for a boardwalk that ends at a lake. When she looks down and sees people with unnaturally bright smiles waving at her, he shrinks back down in her chair and grumbles to herself. The bus stops suddenly, catching her by surprise and throwing her against the seat.

"Alright, we're here, everybody out" the bust driver says, and like before, Ruby jumps up quickly so she can be the first one out of the bus. Everyone else followed her more slowly.

"Welcome, campers!" One of the counselors says. "We're so glad to have you here at our wonderful little campground. My name is Kate. I'm one of the camp counselors here. You'll be spending the next 8 weeks having the time of your life here. We have a schedule of events that we follow every day, and you must show up to the first one on time every day for attendance. We eat lunch in the mess hall every day at 1, and during the last week we'll be eating at 12 so we can have an ice cream party the last night at 9!" it sickened Ruby how sweet her voice sounded. "Registration and distribution of keys will be at the mess hall. Got it? Good! See you there!" She says, and heads off in a different direction. Half the kids head over to the mess hall and half of them stay where they are and chat. Ruby heads over to the mess hall. She wants to get this over with ASAP.

"Hello!" a different camp counselor says when she approaches them at the table. "Could I have your name please?"

Ruby cringed. "Ruby". She hated how ridiculous her name sounded.

The camp counselor flipped through his clip board for a little bit. "Ah, here you are. Cabin 6A" He hands her a key. "Have a nice day!" he says, and she leaves the mess hall to look for her cabin. After walking for a while, she finds it's the one closest to the lake on the left side.

"At least one good thing came out of this dumb camp" she mumbles as she opens her cabin door. She rolls her suitcase over to one of the beds and lies it down next to it. She lies there for a while, not bothering to get unpacked. When she looks down and sees a huge stain, however, she stands up, unzips her suitcase, grabs a new shirt, shampoo, and conditioner, and a towel, and heads for the showers.

She walks into the bathroom, turns on the shower, locks the stall and closes the curtain before getting undressed and turning on the water. Just as she steps under water, she hears the girl in the next stall begin to sing. Ruby rolls her eyes in amusement. _I guess she kind of forgot where she was,_ she thought, but even though the other girl should be able to her Ruby running her shower, she continues to sing, and it's the most beautiful thing Ruby's ever heard. Since the other girl's not singing any lyrics, Ruby fights the urge to sing with her. So Ruby lets the girl do her thing, and she stops after a short while to shut off her water. She listens to see if the girl would start again, but only hears the sound of the bathroom door closing. So Ruby washes off the rest of her body, and then her hair. She shuts off the water shortly after that, and dries herself off. She picks up the shirt she had picked up in her suitcase. It was her white jersey, and it said 17 on it in red with her last name printed on the back. She threw it on, and then put her dark red shorts back on. After gathering her things, she headed back to her cabin.

About halfway there, she begins to hear the girl's singing voice again. At first she believes she's just hearing things, until she realizes that it's coming from her cabin. She looks inside the window when she gets there, but can't see much of the girl. What she can see, however, is that she dumped her suitcase out on the bed next to hers. Ruby used her key, which startles the girl, causing her to stop. Ruby still can't seem to tell where she is, until she stands up from beside her bed. It's the girl she had stopped the bus for back at Beach City. She's now wearing a dark blue crop top with loose straps and a light blue skirt that almost touches the ground.

"Oh, hello!" she says cheerfully, as if she recognized her from earlier. "Sorry about the mess…and the singing. I guess it's just a habit of mine"

"What? Oh no it's fine. I think you sing really well, actually." Ruby says, placing her shampoo and conditioner bottles on her nightstand so she can dump her suitcase on her bed.

"Really? Thank you!" she says, and she smiles at Ruby, and she smiles back.

"Yeah, no problem. You're really good." Ruby says, and then pauses for a moment before continuing. "Are you from Beach City, too?"

"What? Oh, no. That stop was just the closest one to my own hometown."

"Oh."

"I went there a lot over the summer as a kid though. Do you live there?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't it annoying having thousands of tourists come into your hometown over the summer?" the girl asks, and Ruby laughs.

"A little bit, but you grow to get used to it. Plus, school does get out pretty early every year because of it, so there are also some advantages to it as well."

"Lucky" The girl says, and Ruby laughs.

"Yeah, but there aren't much people living there, so it can get kind of lonely in the winter and stuff"

"Hmm." the other girl says. "That's interesting. There's so many people where I live it seems like you can never see the same person more than once. I'd love to trade with you." She says.

"Okay, but don't come crying to me later when you get sick of seeing the same 15 people every day" Ruby says with a smile, and the other girl laughs.

"Hah, you're a riot" the other girl says, closing her drawers and shoving her suitcase under her bed before going over to help Ruby with her stuff. "What's your name?" She asks, and again, Ruby cringes.

"Uh… it's Rachel. Yeah. Rachel" She says, and the other girl frowns.

"Oh come on, don't be shy."

"I already told you that it's Rachel" Ruby says, looking away.

"You don't like your name?" she asks, and Ruby sighs and shakes her head.

"No. I hate it because it's so ridiculous." She says, and the other girl smiles.

"Try me. I don't think mine could be any worse" she says with a hint of laughter in her tone.

"Alright" Ruby says. "I'm Ruby. Nice to meet you."

The other girl laughs and holds out her hand. "Hey, I'm Sapphire."


	2. Chapter 2

"Ha," Ruby laughs, but then quickly covered her mouth. She hadn't meant for her laugh to sound as rude as it did. "And here I thought Jade and I were the only ones with names like that. Hers is common, though. It's nice to know someone with a name just as ridiculous as mine." Ruby punches Sapphire in the arm, but then pulls her arm away. "Sorry, force of habit."

Sapphire laughs and punches Ruby in the arm just as hard as she had punched her. "It's alright. I've got a few rough friends back home."

Ruby smiles and rolls her eyes. "You have friends? I thought you said your town was big enough to never see the same person twice" she says, and Sapphire shoves her again.

"Oh, shut up. You know what I mean"

Ruby sits up and shoves Sapphire back. "Ooh, I insulted a city girl whose descriptions of her 'friends' sound suspiciously like the way someone would describe their older brother" she says sarcastically, waving her hands around.

"I don't like you" Sapphire says just as sarcastically, and Ruby smirks.

"What are you going to do then, push me again? Go on, try and hit me if you're able" she says, and darts out of the way of Sapphire to avoid getting shoved again.

"Don't be such a sore sport and move out of my way before I can even get to you!" Sapphire says, and dives after Ruby. Ruby jumps out of the way, but not quickly enough, and Sapphire tackles her legs and knocks her back over. Ruby grunts, and Sapphire smiles. "Not so bad for a girl with 'no friends', huh?" she asks, and Ruby groans. Before either of them respond, there's a knock at the door, and both of them scramble to stand up in case it's a third cabin mate who showed up late. Ruby heads back to her suitcase to finish unpacking and Sapphire runs her hands through her hair to smooth it out before heading to the door.

"Hello?" Sapphire asks, and as soon as Ruby hears the voice behind the door her heart drops. She had almost completely forgotten where she was until she heard that shrill and fake-sounding voice.

"Hello Sapphire! Is your cabin mate here? I have news you both need to hear!" she says, and Ruby stands up and heads over to the door, shaking her head slightly. _Cabin mate. That's the stupidest term I've ever heard in my entire life._

"I'm here." She says, she stands up from beside her bed, and heads towards both of them. She stops when she's beside Sapphire. "I just fell a little behind in unpacking my stuff" she lies.

"Okay, well I just came by to hand you your schedules!" The girl says, handing them both pamphlets with tons of events and times listed on them. "Breakfast is starting soon! Attendance will not be taken there, so come down as soon as you're done packing." She says, looking right at Ruby.

"Alright. We'll be down in a few minutes" she says, and the girl nods, and turns around and leaves. As soon as she's out of sight, Ruby groans.

"Does _everything_ here have to be so perfectly scheduled out?" She asks, heading back over to her suitcase. "I can't go two minutes without being told what to do and when I can do it."

"Yeah, but you should be able to get used to it. They're only acting like this because it's the first day. Trust me; I went to these a lot as a kid"

"Really?" Ruby asks, and Sapphire nods.

"Oh, yeah. Trust me. Sure, the events can be kind of boring at times, but hey." Sapphire nudges Ruby again. "That's what I'm here for. To make sure you don't die of boredom. It'll be a lot easier on your parents too. They'll have the guarantee that you're coming back alive and in one piece" she teases.

"Oh, hush." Ruby teases back, and they work together to pack the rest of her stuff away.

"You wanna head over now?" Sapphire asks when they finish, and Ruby nods.

"Better we go now than never before somebody else drags us out of here" Ruby says, standing up and heading out the cabin door with Sapphire close behind.

"Are you kidding?" Ruby asks, wiping away a tear. "Even _you_ know what happened to Ocean Town?" she asks, trying hard not to break into hysterical laughter.

"Well yeah!" Sapphire says, shaking her head. "My aunt and uncle lived there. They try not to think about it too much"

Ruby smiled. "Oh, I would too. No wonder Mayor Dewey is always so inclusive about it when we try to ask about it"

Sapphire paused. "Mayor Dewey? He still works there?" she asks, breaking into laughter herself. "I thought they would've run the poor guy out of town by then!"

"Hah, I guess not. Maybe it's because nobody else wants to run against him"

"Oh, I wouldn't after something like that happened to me"

Ruby and Sapphire are finishing off their breakfast. As soon as Ruby got into a little bit more detail about her hometown, Sapphire jumped right into telling her about the legendary "Ocean Town" that came before Beach City. Ruby had heard of it before, but it wasn't until now did she hear the story. Every time Ruby tried to ask either Buck or the mayor himself, neither of them answered. She could understand why Buck wouldn't answer. He's her age. He might not know the story either. But the Mayor brought it up at the last mandatory public town meeting.

"I wouldn't either. See? He's already got two less people to worry about taking his position" Ruby says, and Sapphire laughs.

"I bet if we told everyone here, he'd have hundreds of people he wouldn't have to worry about taking his position"

"Yeah, and when that works, we can sign up for his campaign. He'll let us go anywhere we want for free for the rest of our lives." Ruby says.

"Great. You go get your phone and call the kid you said was his son, I'll start telling people the story. We meet back here in 10." Sapphire says, standing up, but immediately drops back down in her seat and begins laughing hysterically. Ruby tries not to laugh herself, but one good look at Sapphire trying to hide her face in her hands sets her off laughing just as hysterically.

"Oh man" Ruby says, gripping the side of the table with one hand and wiping away a tear with the other when she calms down. "I don't know how it's possible we haven't met before today. You're great" she says, standing up to return her tray.

"Thanks, you're pretty great too" Sapphire says, standing up to do the same. Once both trays are returned, they head back to their tables. When Ruby notices a few people are starting to leave, she looks over at Sapphire.

"Is the first event really starting so soon after breakfast? I left my schedule on my bed" Ruby glances around the room at all of the people

Sapphire took her own schedule out from an invisible pocket in her skirt and unfolded it. "Apparently so. Ceramics start in 20 minutes"

Ruby frowns. "Perfect" she says sarcastically, standing up. "We should head back to the cabin first so I can have at least five minutes to think for myself"

Sapphire frowns. "Why do you keep saying things like that?" she asks, and Ruby sighs.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I didn't come here by choice. My mom forced me to come here while she's away on business. I'm so ready for this thing to be over with"

Sapphire shakes her head. "Look, Ruby. I know you're not having fun yet, but will you please give it a chance?" Ruby tries to look away, but can't find the heart when Sapphire smiles at her. "For me?" she asks, and Ruby sighs and closes her eyes.

"Fine. But only for you" she says, and stands up.

"Great! Let's go" Sapphire says, grabbing her by the hand and running out of the mess hall, catching her off guard.

Ceramic is not at all what Ruby thought it would be. She thought it would be like a pottery class, where the instructors hover over her and tell her that her hands aren't in the right position to be making a pot, or that she can't just make whatever she wants and has to follow the instructions. Instead, they're given a choice of a bunch of different already made ceramic statues and get to paint them with as many colors as they'd like. It's not as eventful as Ruby would think, but it is the most independent event she's done upon arrival. Even at breakfast people where telling her where to go and how much food she cold and couldn't take. This was nice. Maybe if all the events could be like this, she can grow to like being sent here.

Ruby looks over at Sapphire. She's laying out her brushes and palette carefully and tying her long hair up in a ponytail. Not surprisingly, half of the colors on her palette are some variety of the color blue, and they're very widely stretched into different spots. Ruby smiles, and returns her glance to her own palette. She has a bigger variety of colors, excluding the two or three different shades of red she nabbed. Her palette also seems a lot messier than Sapphire's. She was generous with the amount of paint she took, so her colors are already starting to touch each other. Although they didn't speak very much while they painted, Ruby couldn't help but to keep looking over at Sapphire. Her hair bounced every time she turned her head, and she had a really ridiculous concentrated look on her face. Every time Sapphire looked over at her, she would whip her head back over to her own statue and continued to paint her own statue in a really sloppy manner. It wasn't the best move on her part, but at least Sapphire didn't think of Ruby as a creep for staring at her.

When the counselor comes by to announce the end of the event, Ruby grabs her statue and runs out of the building as fast as she can. Whether out of a force of habit or of how flustered she's feeling she's not sure.

She runs straight for her cabin, opens the door, and places her ceramic statue on a little table before diving into bed. _What's wrong with me?_ She thinks, digging her face into her pillow. She's been friends with Jade for years, and nothing like this ever happened with her. Nothing like this has happened to anyone she's ever been close with. But Sapphire? She's known her for less than a day. Sure, she's much easier to talk to than other people, and she's so understanding, and she listens well, she's really pretty, and has a nice voice, but….

"Ruby?"

Ruby jumped up at the sound of Sapphire calling her name from outside of the cabin.

"I'm in here" she says, walking over to the door and letting her in.

"Are you okay? You ran out of that building like your life depended on it."

"Did I?" Ruby lies. "I guess it's just a force of habit. I'm sorry" She grabbed the schedule from her dresser.

Are you sure you're okay? You seemed to be having an okay time at ceramics, but then you left as soon as they gave you the okay to go. You said you would try to have a good time"

"I was having a good time!" Ruby yelled louder than she intended to. "I mean, I was having a good time." She whispered. "I think my brain still thinks I'm at school or something. My logic there is 'get out as soon as you can'. It was nothing against you or my sloppy painting skills." She says, and chuckles nervously.

"I don't think your painting skill is that sloppy"

"What, no. you're just saying that to get back at me for complimenting your voice"

"I am not" Sapphire says, walking over to the door and picking up the statue Ruby left by the door. "I think it's cute"

Ruby coughed, trying to hide the fact that her compliment had made her blush. "Thank you" she says, but then grins when she glances at her schedule. "But you know what's better than my _amazing_ painting skills?" She says half-sarcastically.

"What?" Sapphire says, placing the statue down and heading back over to Ruby's bed. Ruby points at the 11:30-12:00pm slot on the schedule titled _Rec Sports_.

"My awesome soccer skills. Wanna play a game with me when the time comes around?" Ruby beams, and Sapphire grins.

"You're on" Sapphire says, and they shake hands.

The rest of the day leading up to then passes slowly for Ruby. There's an empty timeslot between each event, giving you enough time to be able to stop at your cabin for a moment before heading over to the next event. Ruby takes advantage of this almost every time, finding an excuse to have a quick few minutes to talk to Sapphire alone without any disruptions. She doesn't fake being upset or anything; she just gestures to the cabin and lets Sapphire come back if she wants to. The events are what are really slow, though, because most of them involve working by herself. The longer she finds herself away from Sapphire, the slower the day seems to pass.

As soon as the clock in the rec center switches to 11:30, and they're given the okay to go, Ruby heads right for the middle of the campground where all the sports are set up. She picks up the first soccer ball she sees, and kicks it to Sapphire as soon as Ruby can pick her out from the group of kids walking over together. Sapphire separates herself from the group to kick the ball back to her, and runs up to her.

"You ready?" Ruby says, stopping the ball with her foot, and Sapphire grins.

"Oh yeah"

"Alright then, let's go find a place to play. I'm not seeing any nets, so we're going to have to improvise."

"Hmm…." Sapphire says, and then grins. She runs up to the flagpole and taps it. "How about this? " She says, stepping around it and drawing a line in the dirt with her shoe. "We make the flag pole the middle, and place our goals on opposite sides of it."

Ruby nods her head. "Alright, yeah" she says, walking over and creating her own goal in the dirt with her shoe.

"Should we gather other players?" Sapphire asks, and Ruby grabs the ball from the ground.

"How about we make it a little interesting and see if we can do it one on one" Ruby asks, more like a challenge than a suggestion, and Sapphire grins.

"Okay. What if we hit the flagpole? Does it count as a foul?"

"If you want me to go easy on you than maybe it should count as bonus points" Ruby says, sticking her tongue out at Sapphire playfully.

"Oh, don't be such a poor sport" Sapphire says, grabbing the ball from Ruby. "You're just scared you're going to hit it" she says, and drops it on the ground. "It's going to count as a foul" says, and Ruby rolls her eyes. "Alright, fine. You ready?" She asks, and holds out her hand, but Sapphire pushes her aside and begins kicking the ball towards Ruby's goal.

"Set, go!" she yells quickly, and Ruby dives after the ball and kicks it away from her own goal towards Sapphire's. Once assured it's far enough away, she runs after it and kicks it again right into Sapphire's goal.

"Scared yet?" She asks, and Sapphire picks it up and returns it to the middle.

"Not even close" she says, kicking it in between Ruby's legs and right past her goal. Ruby glares at her jokingly, and then goes to pick up the ball from her goal.

"Oh, you should be. It's on now" she says, placing a hand on Sapphire's chest so she can prevent her from coming anywhere near her ball. She kicks it, and Sapphire shoves Ruby's hand away and dives after it. She kicks it hard enough to send it flying off of the ground, and it slams into the flagpole before it flies back towards Sapphire's goal. Sapphire kicks it away at the last minute, sending it straight into Ruby's goal.

"Ah, ah ah, you know the rules" Ruby says, picking the ball up. "That counts as a foul. Sorry!" she says, and Sapphire takes the ball from her and places it back in the middle. "Yeah, but I'd like to see you try and do a better kick than that"

"Well, I could, but then you'd never want to look at another soccer ball ever again"

"Oh yeah? Try me" Sapphire says, and Ruby grins.

"Alright, but don't tell me I didn't warn you"

Ruby takes the ball and walks in between two of the cabins. She kicks it up in the air, and then again against one of the cabin walls. The ball bounces between the two cabins once or twice, and when it's right about to do it another time, she kicks it, and it goes flying off towards the flagpole. It projects itself off of the pole and goes flying back towards Ruby, who ducks. When the ball goes flying into the woods, it hits a tree and slams to the ground.

"Wow" Sapphire says sarcastically, clapping her hands slowly as she approaches Ruby. "That was really great. But you know, the goal is over there. Not in the tree" She walks over to the ball and picks it up. "And besides, it hit the flagpole. It doesn't count" She says, and Ruby smiles.

"Who says I was trying to get it into your goal? Maybe I was just showing off"

"Showing off isn't in the rule book" Sapphire says, pouting sarcastically.

"Well neither is kicking a ball between my legs but you seem to be a big fan of that" Ruby says, and Sapphire tries to kick the ball at her, and Ruby dodges.

"See? There you go again. You're breaking more rules than I am"

"And what a good role model you are, encouraging it" Sapphire says.

"Thank you, I try" she says, taking a bow, and Sapphire laughs.

"Alright, you win, but I think we should get back over where the counselors can see us so they don't drill how bad we are for walking 5 feet away from the flagpole or whatever" she says, and

"Okay mom, whatever you say" Ruby says, and Sapphire nudges her.

"Oh be quiet"

Ruby and Sapphire play a few more rounds before the counselor blows the whistle to gather them around and tell them about how lunch is going to work. Ruby stops paying attention when they mention how it'll work just like breakfast, or lunch in a school cafeteria. She glances over at Sapphire, who seems to be paying full attention, but glances over at her and smiles regardless. When Ruby feels a blush creeping up on her face, she turns her face away again. As soon as they're dismissed, Ruby rubs her hands through her hair and finds it covered in dirt when she pulls it back out.

"Blech," she says to herself, and then shakes her hair off and heads over to Sapphire. "I think I need to take another shower. How about you?" she asks, and Sapphire looks around at herself and in her hair. "Nah, I think I'm good. You go, I'll meet you back at the cabin" she says, and Ruby nods before heading off in a separate direction than her.

As soon as she's sure Sapphire can't hear her anymore, she groans. _This is torture,_ she thinks, opening the door to the bathroom and heading to the nearest shower stall. _This is ridiculous,_ she thinks, getting herself undressed. _How could this happen to me?_ She wonders, turning on the water. _She's so nice_. She steps into the shower and closes her eyes looks up at the shower head, letting it run down her short, curly brown hair. _She would understand_. She grabs the shampoo and rubs it into her hair. _But we only met today…_ She begins scrubbing harder. _She'll probably think it's weird._ She begins scrubbing harder. _She probably doesn't believe in love at first sight. I don't even believe in it._ She grunts as she accidentally scratches herself, and stands back under the water to let all of the dirt and shampoo wash out of her hair. She sighs before turning around and letting the water hit the front of her body and the rest of her hair. _You have to tell her._ She thinks, slowly beginning to calm down. _It doesn't have to be today. You have until the end of the month._ She scrubs conditioner into her hair before washing it off quickly. _You'll have plenty of time with her alone before you go home._ Once she's sure the dirt is completely gone from her hair, she turns off the water and squeezes her hair to get the trapped water out of it. She throws her clothes back on, and when she puts her shorts back on, the schedule falls out of one of her pockets. She picks it up, and two things catch her eyes right away.

One, that they're going to be riding canoes almost daily all of next week and the week after that, and two, that that there's going to be a big group campfire every night for the last two weeks of camp. She'll tell her at one of those. There will be plenty of opportunities to get her alone. Maybe she'll "get them lost" in the middle of the lake. Maybe she won't. Maybe she'll pretend to have to run and get a sweater from her cabin to sit at the campfire with. Maybe she won't. She doesn't know how she'll confess, or when, but she does know that she will confess, and it _will_ be perfect.


	3. Chapter 3

When Ruby returns to the cabin, Sapphire is lying down on her bed, her legs crossed and a book in her hands. She's humming the same song she was singing in the shower.

"Hey, Sapphire!" Ruby says, tossing her bag of shower stuff towards her bed. It misses, however, and lands right next to Sapphire's bed, making a banging noise loud enough to scare her into falling off of her bed.

"Oof!" She yells once she hits the floor, and Ruby laughs, offering Sapphire her hand.

"You didn't tell me you were so easily scared. Do you need me to wear a bell? So you can hear me when I come in?" Ruby teases, and helps Sapphire up once she grabs her hand.

"I'm not. You frightened me is all"

"Even after I called your name?"

"Oh hush. I was reading my book." Sapphire says, removing her hand from Ruby's and sitting back down on her bed.

"What took you so long, anyways?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You were in there for almost half an hour. That's almost half the time they're giving you for free time before lunch. What were you doing in there?" She laughs, and Ruby blushes.

 _Thinking about how to tell you that I love you, that's what I was doing._ "I was taking a shower and I guess I guess I lost track of time" Ruby smacks her forehead. "Silly me" She walks over to the space in between her and Sapphire's bed, picks up her bag, and places it on her bed.

"What are you reading, anyways?" She asks, kicking her shoes off and places it next to her drawer.

"This?" Sapphire says, holding up her book. "Oh, it's nothing, just a romance novel I borrowed from the library yesterday afternoon to bring with me. She smiles. "Thanks for that, by the way"

"Yeah, no problem" Ruby begins, and holds her hand up in the air, but then freezes and drops it onto her lap. "Wait, you read romance novels?" She asks. If she gives any other answer other than 'no, there was nothing else that looked interesting" then she just found the answer to the question that's been bothering her for the past hour and a half.

Sapphire plops back down on her bed facing away from Ruby as if she's embarrassed by the question. "Yeah, I'm kind of a sucker for romance. Of all kinds" She pushes some of her hair behind her ear and stands up, her book in her hands.

"Like this one" Sapphire says, handing Ruby the book. It shows a shadow of a boy and a girl sitting on a grassy hill looking up at a summer night sky. _Candle Sparks_ is scrawled across the top in stars. "It's about this boy and girl who are really close friends. The boy really wants to confess to the girl, but every time he does, she misunderstands the message. He tells her she's pretty, she thinks of it as a simple compliment. He buys her roses, she thinks it's because she got the part in the school play. It's ridiculous" She laughs. "I think that might be why it's called Candle Sparks. Because nothing he's doing is working. Campfires and Candles are both fires, but only campfires can create real sparks. Until she realizes he's trying to tell her he's in love with her or he tells her upfront, then their relationship will always remain imaginary. Like a Candle spewing sparks" She takes the book back from Ruby. "I haven't finished it yet, so maybe it means something else, but that's what I'm assuming." She looks up at Ruby.

"Why do you ask? Do you like romance novels too?"

Ruby had to stop herself from snorting. She didn't like them at all, but didn't want to be rude. "No," she begins, and she frowns when she sees Sapphire preparing to block out some sort of insult towards them by drifting her attention away from her the same way Ruby had done to the camp counselors countless times today. "I haven't gotten the chance to read that many."

Sapphire perks back up. "Do you want to borrow this one when I'm finished? It shouldn't take that long for me to finish"

 _Now you're practically handing over ideas for me to confess to you._ "Yeah, sure. It seems pretty interesting." _But 'not that long' could vary anywhere from a day to a few days before we have to leave._ "Did you bring any others with you that I can read while I wait for you to finish that one?" _Because if I try to confess like that boy did, you're sure to laugh in my face._ Sapphire doesn't respond, but after a few short moments she reaches under her bed for a small backpack.

"Let me check" She says, opening the zipper. "Give me a minute though, okay? I brought a lot of stuff with me"

"Yeah, take your time" Ruby says, and falls back onto her bed and sighs quietly. Maybe this will be easier than she thought it would. She crosses her legs and folds her legs above her head. Even if she didn't take an idea from a book, at least she could get a few ideas of what to avoid. From what she heard from conversations between people she passed in the hallway, not all romance novels ended happily.

"Oh, I guess I do have another one." Sapphire says suddenly, and Ruby sits up. "Here," she says, tossing it to Ruby. "I forgot I had packed this. I haven't read it yet either, so don't spoil anything. Maybe we can swap books when we're both done"

Ruby looks at the book Sapphire had given her. _Eleanor and Park_ is written across the top, and the cover to this book is simpler than the other one. Ruby looks up at Sapphire to thank her, but when she sees that Sapphire is already back to reading her own book, she rolls her eyes and lies back down on her bed and opens the front cover of the book and begins to read it.

Ruby isn't anywhere near halfway through the book before she gets bored of reading and decides to put it down. The book isn't at all what the cover suggested it would be like anyways, so she folds the page in to save it and places the book down on the drawer next to her bed. She decides to lie down on her side and watch Sapphire read her book. Sometimes she laughs, sometimes she gasps, and once or twice she drops the book on her face by mistake and picks it right back up and goes back to reading. Ruby laughs to herself. _She's always in her own world. I wonder what she's thinking about when she reads to make her read for as long as she has been._

All of a sudden, however, Sapphire glances over at her quickly, and upon seeing her position, she places her book on top of her hip upside down and copies Ruby's position, facing her. "Can I help you?" She asks, almost sarcastically, but then eases up. "Weren't you reading your book a minute ago?" she asks, and Ruby shakes her head.

"Yeah, but I got bored. I didn't mean to stare"

"I know" Sapphire laughs suddenly, and places the upside down book next to Ruby's on her drawer. "I was just messing with you. I put my book down because I heard the bell dismissing us for lunch and wanted to get you out of your stare". She stands up. "Come on, let's go" she says, and Ruby stands up with her.

"So" Ruby says as they push their way out of their cabin. "Anything interesting happen in that book you were reading? You seemed pretty into it"

"What? You saw? You said you didn't mean to stare at me" Sapphire asks, beginning to blush.

"I didn't" Ruby lied. "But since I had been lying that way anyways, you seemed to be reacting to just about every paragraph that book had to offer"

"Okay, fine. I guess that makes sense"

"Well? Did anything interesting happen?" Ruby asks, and Sapphire shakes her head as if to break herself out of a deep thought.

"Oh right, sorry. Yeah! It was really interesting. They're having this big dance coming up at the school and he's trying to find ways to ask her. You probably heard me laughing. That's because one of the times he tried to ask her his eyes were closed because it was supposed to be some big dramatic thing and he ended up asking another guy to the dance. He said no, of course, but it was still pretty funny."

"Hm." Ruby responds. "Did he get to ask her yet?

"Well he was about to before they rang the bell. I bet she's asking to go as a friend though. What about your book?"

Ruby shrugs. "I didn't get far enough into the book for me to say for sure."

"Hm." Sapphire copied Ruby's response. They walk in silence for a few moments.

"Does your high school ever have big school dances?" Sapphire asks suddenly, clearly still thinking about the book she was reading.

"Oh yeah. We're pretty big on those."

"Do kids do those really big dramatic proposes like they do at bigger schools?"

"Oh yeah." Ruby says, pushing and holding the door of the mess hall open for Sapphire. "Every five minutes. Big ones, small ones, and sometimes even last minute ones done on the night of with fireworks"

"Fireworks? People can afford stuff like that where you live so easily they can for stuff like that?"

"Nah" Ruby shakes her head. "Just the super-rich kids who live really close to the water who can afford that much"

"Anyone ever propose to you?" Sapphire asks, and Ruby shakes her head.

"Not dramatically, no. How about you?"

"No, but I would absolutely die if somebody did for me. I'm such a sap" she says, shaking her head.

"Aw, there's nothing wrong with that"

"I know, but it always gives me such high expectations. I've never even been on a date before" Sapphire says as they sit down at a random table by the door.

Ruby frowns."Why not? You seem like you should be able to get one easily"

"Oh hush, you're just saying that."

"But I'm not. Tell me why you've never dated anyone"

"I told you, it's because I feel like my expectations are too high. I expect things to be like they are in romance books and movies all the time when I know they're not"

 _If you go out with me I'll make sure it's always better than those dumb books and movies._ "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. I'd want everything to be perfect and I hate fighting. And oh boy, I'd love a huge confession. Like the ones in the movies." Sapphire glances out the door towards the lake, and Ruby follows her glance until she finds herself looking at it dreamily as well. "But not a lot of people are into that kind of thing unless they're just as sappy as I am" Sapphire looks away from the lake and down at her food. "But the odds of meeting someone like that are a million to one"

Ruby isn't sure why Sapphire's words hurt her. She scoots closer to Sapphire. "Hey, don't say that kind of stuff about yourself. I'm sure you'll find somebody you think of as your soul mate." She says, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. Sapphire reaches back and touches Ruby's hand, which makes her blush.

"Thank you" she says.

"Yeah, anytime" Ruby says, and scoots back over to her tray of food, and upon glancing over at Sapphire again, an idea pops in her head about how to confess to her. She glances at the clock to check what time it is, the lake, and then over at Sapphire, and smiles warmly.


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby paces around the room with a notebook and pencil in her hand she had brought from home. Now that she knows how much of a hopeless romantic Sapphire is, she knows she just HAS to come up with the perfect way to confess to her. She only knows one thing about her confession so far, and that's the fact that it has to involve the lake. Somehow. It's been almost two days since Ruby found out what she needed to hear from Sapphire. Since she has free time, and Sapphire's out of the cabin, she decided to try and collect a bunch of her ideas in a notebook to see if she can find a good one buried somewhere in her head.

Ruby taps her pencil on her lower lip momentarily before getting an idea and writing it down.

"Walk down to the lake at night with her and hold up a sign against the moonlight"

No, that was stupid. Ruby rips the page out and crumples it up before tossing it lazily onto the ground.

"Push her into the lake and-" Ruby scribbles all over the sentence before she can finish writing it. Of course that's not going to work. She shows that kind of affection towards everyone. She crumples the page up and tosses it aside into the pile of all her other horrible ideas.

Ruby groans. "Why is this bothering me so much?" She says aloud to herself. "I shouldn't be thinking about this as much as I am!" She kicks the small pile of crumpled papers and watches as one of them rolls under Sapphire's bed. She gets down on her knees and crawls towards Sapphire's bed and grabs the paper from under it. She unfolds it just to check which 'great idea' it is for a moment, but before she can crumple it up it catches her attention.

'Go with your original plan. Ignore the rest of the really stupid ones and just go with the original"

And then it hits her. The plan to take Sapphire to the middle of the lake when they go canoeing and confess to her there. It's perfect. Ruby's unsure what made her toss this one in the first place. Maybe she spaced and tossed it out of habit. Maybe she thought it just meant walking up to Sapphire and saying it with little to no meaning in her voice. Who knows? She opens her top drawer, places the crinkled paper inside, and begins tossing the rest of the crinkled paper into the trash can on the other side of the room.

Sapphire walks blindly into the cabin a moment later. She's drying her hair off with a towel, and she's humming that same song she always sings. She must be coming from the showers. Ruby tosses the last wrinkled paper across the room blindly as well, and hits Sapphire in the face.

"Hey!" Sapphire says, picking the paper up off the floor and throwing it back at Ruby. Upon realizing what she did, Ruby shakes her head and picks the paper up off the floor. Before she can open her mouth to apologize, Sapphire begins to laugh, as if realizing what SHE had just done.

"I'm sorry; I guess that's just a habit of mine. My brother used to do stuff like that to me on purpose all the time." She drops the towel she was using to dry her hair onto her bed and walks over to Ruby, getting down on her knees to pick the paper up for Ruby. When she stands up and realizes how closely she's standing to Ruby, she freezes for a mere few seconds before backing up a step or two. Just enough time for Ruby to notice her blush.

 _SHE'S blushing? I wouldn't be surprised if my face was dark red right now, but her? Sapphire? Blushing because of ME? It can't be. I must be seeing things._

"Here." Sapphire says in a breathy tone before clearing her throat. "What is this, anyway, that's bad enough for you to crumple it up before you throw it halfway across the room to throw it away?" She asks as she hands it back to Ruby.

"Oh, pfft, you know…" Ruby says, crumbling it more so none of the words are visible. "Just some old things of mine I found in my backpack that I must have brought with me by mistake"

Sapphire glances over at the almost filled to the brim trashcan and frowns. "But why would you throw them away? I'm sure they're not that bad."

Ruby shrugs. "Well it was from a _long_ time ago. I'm much better now." She glances over at the trashcan herself. "Plus, not all of the trash is stuff I threw away recently. That would be ridiculous" Ruby half-lied, and began to laugh uncontrollably when Sapphire ruffled her hair.

"Good. Don't give up on yourself. I believe in you" She gives Ruby a thumbs up, pretending to act all serious, but then sticks her tongue out moments later, causing both of them to laugh.

"Thank you" Ruby says. It may have been a pretty empty compliment, but it still felt real to Ruby. Even the part about Sapphire sticking her tongue out.

"Yeah, no problem" Sapphire says, walking over to her bed. She grabs her schedule, and just when Ruby plops down on her bed to lie down, Sapphire jumps up. "Oh!" She walks over to the side of her bed that face's Ruby's. "Hey, Ruby?" She asks, and Ruby turns to face her in her bed

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Sapphire asks, twiddling the schedule around her hands. "There's not much required activities left for the rest of the day and I really want to get to know you better while we have the chance. Days like this don't usually come until the last two or so weeks of the month"

Ruby ignores the blush she can feel forming on her face and tries to hide how excited she is as she stands up. "Sure" she starts, but then realization hits and she shakes her head. "But where would we walk? Around the campground?" She asks, and as if she was waiting for Ruby to ask that exact question, she begins beaming. She takes Ruby's hand and begins running somewhere.

"Trust me" she says, and Ruby rolls her eyes before running alongside her. Sapphire takes her towards the area in between the two cabins Ruby had kicked the soccer ball at two days prior.

"Uh, Sapphire?" Ruby starts, but Sapphire keeps going. "Sapphire, I already know what's over here."

Sapphire ignores her. When she gets to the woods, she starts heading in a direction that seems like it would lead them right back to their own cabin. "Sapph-" she begins, but Sapphire cuts her off.

"Shh. We're almost there"

"What do you mean, 'almost there'? I thought you wanted to go for a walk"

"I do, but not before we get to the right trail"

"The right trail? What do you mean the right…?" Ruby's voice trails off when Sapphire comes to a dead stop and Ruby gets a good look at their surroundings. There's a small trail going on an upward spiral with a beautiful view of the lake at every angle.

"This." Sapphire says, somewhat out of breath. "This is what I mean by the right trail. Come on." She says, letting go of Ruby's hand. She starts to walk ahead, and Ruby jogs ahead to walk next to Sapphire.

"How did you find this? It's beautiful!"

Sapphire looks at her and smiles. "Yeah, I thought you might like this place. I found it a while back the first time I came to this camp"

"You've been here more than once?"

"Yeah, I come almost every year."

"Why?"

"Because, I loved it the first time and met so many great people here that I kept coming back for more after that"

"Isn't there an age limit for these kinds of things?"

"Exactly. That's why I came back this year. Because this is one of the last years I'll be able to come back"

"Huh" Ruby paused. "I never thought of it that way"

"Hm." Sapphire says. "But enough about me. Tell me more about yourself."

"What about myself?"

"Well, everything. You said you had a friend named Jade, right? Tell me about how you met her."

"Oh! That kind of stuff. Well, I met Jade in grade school. She was the only kid in my class who didn't make fun of me for having a 'dumb' name. She stood up for me and was all 'you do know what Jade is a gemstone too, right?' and 'it's not like Alayna is much better than Ruby anyways"

"Really? Aw, that's too bad. I think Ruby is a really pretty name"

"Thank you…"Ruby pauses to rub her hand through a few strands of her curly hair to bounce it. "So anyway, I thanked her, we talked for a bit after that, and we hit it off pretty well"

"Interesting. How long have you lived in Beach City?"

"Oh, my whole life. I love it there. It's pretty quiet when there's not thousands of tourists. Everyone knows each other by name. It's pretty cool."

"I thought you said it got lonely in the winter?" Sapphire asks.

"Oh, it does, but if you want someone to talk to, you could literally just walk outside, see someone, and go 'Hi Ronaldo!' or 'Hi Abby!' to the person passing by and they'll recognize you and say hi back"

"Interesting. I thought stuff like that only applied to apartment buildings"

"Nope, we don't even have those in Beach City. The population is too small."

"Alright. Tell me more about yourself."

"Oh, okay." Ruby says, almost caught off guard by Sapphire's sudden interest. "Well, I walk home from school every day, I live in the more homey side of town, I go to high school and I live with my mom. I'm an only child." Ruby shook her head. "But I don't want to talk about just me. I want to know about you" They pause in their steps to sit on a log. Ruby, out of habit of what she's seen on TV more than anything else, takes Sapphire's hand in her own. "I want to know about you. What you're like. What makes you tick" When she glances down and realizes what she's doing, she pulls her hand away and blushes. When she notices Sapphire's blush as well, hers deepens, and she clears her throat and tries to avoid making it look obvious.

"Well," Sapphire says, pushing her long blonde hair out of her deep blue eyes, "I live a few towns over from Beach City." She adjusts herself on the log to look Ruby in the eyes. "I have two older brothers and I live with both of my parents. I'm in high school too. I think we might even be in the same grade."

"Yeah, I think we might be too." Ruby pauses. "How far away from Beach City do you live?"

"Oh, probably about a half hour away. That's just a guestimate though."

"Do you think the real distance is shorter or longer?"

"I'm not sure" Sapphire says, rubbing her head. "I'd like to say shorter, based on memory, but I think it might be longer."

"Oh."

"But that doesn't mean I can't visit you after camp is over" Sapphire says, nudging Ruby in the arm.

"Yeah? I'd really like that."

They both go silent for a short moment, both of them smiling at each other before Sapphire claps her hands together, startling Ruby.

"Anyways. Back to what I was talking about before. I'm a naturally blonde, and it's taken me my entire life to grow it to this length. My favorite color is dark blue. Ironically enough, Sapphires are my favorite type of gemstone. My birthday is next month."

Ruby nods after every fact she lists off about herself, and especially takes note of the fact that she stressed her birthday being next month.

"When's your birthday?"

"Me? Oh, it was back in May."

"Well, happy belated birthday, then"

Ruby laughs. "Thank you. Happy early birthday"

Sapphire laughs. "Thank you."

They sit there in more silence, this time, not really focusing on each other but more on the scenery. Sapphire focuses more on the lake and the ever so slowly sun setting over it, and Ruby focuses more on the trees. When she looks up and sees a huge clearing in the sky despite there being so many trees, she smiles. _I wonder if Sapphire's ever noticed that before._ They sit the way they do for a while, until the setting sun is completely visible on the lake.

"Well" Sapphire says, standing up and stretching her back. "We should probably head back before they send people after us" She offers her hand to Ruby once she stands up. "You up for another run?" She asks, and Ruby nods, grabbing her hand. Instead of running behind Sapphire, this time Ruby tries to run beside her. They release each other's hands as soon as they're out of the woods, and they both bend over in the same position to try and get their breath back. As soon as they emerge from the opening in between the two cabins and find themselves standing by the flagpole in a pretty empty looking campground, they're approached by two camp counselors.

"There you two are! We've been worried sick about you two all afternoon. Where have you been?"

Ruby and Sapphire open their mouths to speak, but one of them cuts them off. "Nevermind. We don't need to know. Get yourselves to the mess hall. Everyone's eating supper now. The past few activities may have been optional, but the evening meal and the flag lowering event following it are not. When the flag lowering is over, you are free to go. But curfew is at 10, because that's when quiet hours begin."

"Do you understand?" The other counselor says, and they both shake their heads yes.

"Then you're dismissed. Go" they say, and clap their hands. They walk off in different directions, and Ruby and Sapphire walk off towards the mess hall.

"Geez, it's not like we hitched a ride from a taxi and snuck out of the camp ground. All we did was go for a walk in the woods. They didn't need to discipline us as much as they did."

"It's alright Ruby. They were just worried about us"

"Yeah, Yeah." Ruby swipes her hand down as if dismissing Sapphire's comment. "But still. I don't like that"

"I didn't either. Now let's go eat and head back to the cabin after the lowering for the rest of the night. Sound good?"

Ruby sighs. "Yeah, okay."

Supper doesn't last long. Since they're late, they can walk right through and get their meals. They sit with another small group of people in their age group, but don't talk to many people at the table other than each other.

The flag lowering ceremony is the same way. All they have to do is watch the flag at the center of camp be lowered by one of the counselors while a low quality version of the national anthem plays out of a little CD player. When that's over, everyone heads off in their own direction, and Ruby and Sapphire head to their cabins momentarily to grab their pajamas and toothbrushes before heading to the bathroom. They could use the bathroom in their own cabin, yes, but they want the chance to be outside one last time before they're stuck inside for the night. Plus, the evening breeze is pretty nice, so that's an added bonus.

After they brush their teeth and change into their pajamas, Ruby a slightly oversized tank top and fuzzy pajama bottoms and Sapphire a long bathrobe, they head back over to their cabins and climb into bed. Sapphire reads for a bit and Ruby writes in her notebook. Once they both feel exhausted, they both put their books down and turn off the lamps on their drawers before facing each other.

"Goodnight, Sapphire" Ruby says, beginning to yawn.

"Goodnight, Ruby." Sapphire says. "Today was fun. We should try to do it again tomorrow" She begins to yawn.

"Yeah" Ruby says, beginning to close her eyes.

"You're a really great friend. I'm glad I met you"

Ruby pops an eye open and looks at Sapphire, who's smiling sleepily at her. Her long hair is all over the place and some of it is falling all over her face in every place other than her eyes.

"Yeah. I'm glad I met you too. Goodnight" She repeats, and Sapphire stretches her arms. "Goodnight" she mumbles one last time, and closes her eyes.

Ruby turns on her side. "You're a great _friend_." She mumbles to herself quietly, and begins to close her eyes, Sapphire's words echoing in her head as she begins to fall asleep.

 _You're a great friend._

 _You're a great friend._

 _You're a great friend._


	5. Chapter 5

"Ruby? Ruby are you up yet?" Sapphire shakes Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby you have to get up, you slept right through the flag raising and if you don't get up soon you'll sleep right through breakfast"

Ruby makes a sound somewhat resembling groaning. "No"

"Ruby please, you have to"

Ruby only pulls her blanket up over her head to block out Sapphire's voice.

"Ruby I'm worried about you. It's almost been a week"

"Mnng..."

Ever since she and Ruby snuck away after dinner to go for a walk in the woods, Ruby appeared to be getting less and less sleep. She seemed fine the first night, but Ruby almost passed out onto her plate of pancakes the next morning. Then, she thought she saw Ruby taking a nap after the break for lunch, but she could barely keep her balance during their soccer game at Rec sports. Something must be wrong with her.

"Do you feel sick?" Sapphire asks, sitting down next to Ruby on her bed. "Do you think you got bitten by a tick when we went for a walk? Do you want me to go find the nurse for you?"

"No" Ruby responds bitterly

"Oh, okay then" Sapphire says, a little surprised as to why Ruby was behaving so bitterly. "Are you…" She pauses to think, and glances over at the trash bin, which appeared spotless, a big change from when it was filled to the brim only last week. "Are you depressed about something? Do you want to talk about it?"

There's a pause, and at first Sapphire thinks Ruby either fell back asleep or was blocking her out again, until the way she responds shows she had to think about that question.

"No"

"You sure?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, but I just want you to know that I really care about you and that if there's ever something on your mind that's bothering you you can come to me about it. Okay?"

Ruby mumbled something inaudible under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said 'alright"

"Okay, then I'm heading to breakfast. Come down when you're ready." Sapphire stands up, rubs Ruby's arm reassuringly, and heads towards the door. She turns around once she's outside to prevent the door from slamming shut, and she can swear she sees Ruby turn over to watch her go.

"Is it something I said?" Sapphire says out loud _. I don't think I said anything mean to her. Think Sapphire, Think_. Sapphire steps into the mess hall and into what remains of the line of people still waiting. She steps a foot out of line to take a look at what they're serving today. One of the counselors dumping food on the plate of the kid in the front of the line catches her attention. _Did what the counselor say to us that night really bother her? It couldn't be. She's the toughest person I've ever met_. Not realizing how short the line really was, or how long she had been spacing out for, it surprised her that she was the next person in line to get her food. She takes the plate from the counselor, thanks her quietly, and sits down beside a few people who had been coming here almost as long as she has.

"Hey, where's that girl you always seem to be with? I didn't see her at the flag raising and now you're showing up late to breakfast without her. What's her name? Raven? Roxi?"

"Ruby"

"Right, Right. So where is she?"

"In bed"

"Still? What's wrong with her?"

Sapphire frowns. "I don't know. I'm worried about her. She's been losing a lot of sleep lately but she has been getting up on time this week. I'm sure she does it at home, but there's nothing to be really keeping her up. There's no homework, and the activities always end at the same time. I tried asking her if she felt sick or depressed and she said no to both"

"Yeesh, I'm sure she's probably just tired. You don't have to worry so much about her"

"I know, but…" She pauses to collect her thoughts. "She's a really good friend of mine. I feel some sort of connection with her that's hard to find in people"

Before any of them can respond, they all hear someone running into the room apologizing frantically to the counselors. Just by the way she's talking, and the way it almost sounds sarcastic, Sapphire can tell it's Ruby. She looks up from her food and she almost can't believe it's the same person.

Ruby brushed and styled her hair in a way that makes it look soft and fluffy. She replaced her old headband with a long red ribbon that she tied around her forehead and made into a small bow at the back of her head. She's wearing a tight fit bright red tank top and replaced the pair of red shorts she had been wearing since day one with a pair of short black jean shorts. As soon as she looks up from her plate of food, Ruby catches sight of Sapphire, smiles, and makes her way over to Sapphire's table. Sapphire smiles back at her warmly as she sits down.

"Hey!" Ruby says

"Hey! You look really nice today" Sapphire says, leaning back to get a good view of the ribbon. "The ribbon's a nice touch too" She leans forward when she hears Ruby cough, but her food tray still appears untouched.

"Thank you" she says quietly, avoiding eye contact with Sapphire by picking at her food with her fork. To avoid making it any more awkward, Ruby tries to bring one of her waffles to her mouth, but drops it by mistake. It splats down on her tray, splashing a drop of maple syrup on her face. The blush that was bright pink when she sat down was now turning a deep red. "S-Sorry" she mumbles, and wipes it off with a napkin. It rips off and sticks to her face, so she stands up. "I'll be right back". She heads towards one of the counselors, clearly becoming more and more embarrassed with every step she takes towards them.

"Uh, what was that?" One of Sapphire's friends asks, and she turns around.

"Her? I think she's just embarrassed because she dropped her food down on her tray really hard when she was trying to-"

"No no, we're talking about you." Another friend says.

"Me?" Sapphire asks, gesturing to herself. "Why me?"

"Oh, please. Don't play dumb with us. You know what we're talking about"

"No I don't?"

"'I feel a really strong connection with her that's hard to find in people'" One of her friends repeated her own words.

"You look really nice today" repeats another

"I really care about you"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sapphire says, almost getting offended by the way her friends were talking to her.

"You don't see it? Sapphire, you like her"

"I know I do. She's my best frie-"

"No, Sapphire. You like her."

"What?" Sapphire exclaims, taken aback by the comment.

"Think about it. You think she's beautiful, you get really worried about her when she doesn't show up to anything for a week even though you KNOW she's still here because she's your roommate-"

"Okay, but you would be too if-" Sapphire begins, but then one of her friends cuts her off.

"Okay, yeah, that was a poor example. Of course we would get worried in the same situation. But tell me this. If that special connection you feel with her isn't love, as in romantic love, then what is it?"

"I already told you. She's my best friend. She talks to me about some things not a lot of people are willing to listen to."

Her friends glance over at each other. "Alright, if you insist, but don't come crawling to us if you discover that it is"

Almost as if on cue, Ruby plops down next to Sapphire and shovels a waffle into her mouth. "Discover that what is what?" she almost spits, and Sapphire glares at her friends in an if-you-tell-her-you're-dead kind of way.

"How deep the lake really is" one of them says randomly. "Sure, you can see right through to the bottom, but that doesn't always mean it's shallow. Sapphire thinks it's 6ft, and I'm telling her it's closer to 20ft."

"Hmm..." Ruby says, taking a sip from her orange juice before glancing down and something on her lap. "It looks like we've got free time at 3. Do you wanna go swimming then, to test it out? And don't worry Sapphire," she pauses to nudge her in the shoulder. "I somewhat know CPR, so if you drown, I've got you covered" She sticks her tongue out and licks her lips mockingly at Sapphire, who pushes her away gently and laughs.

"Oh, sick. I'd rather drown" She jokes and Ruby gasps exaggeratingly, which only causes Sapphire to laugh even louder.

"So, yes it is then?" Ruby suggests, and Sapphire shrugs.

"Sure, it seems like it could be a lot of fun. It's starting to get really hot out too, so that'll help a lot."

2:58 PM. Sapphire's pacing helplessly outside the bathroom in her bathing suit. It's a bikini, with a light blue frilly top with spaghetti straps and a black bottom to match.

"You almost done?" She calls to Ruby.

"Yeah! Just applying sunscreen!" Ruby yells back. "I burn super easy and a bad sunburn is the last thing I want right now" A small pause, and then "Hey, I'm gonna come out. Tell me if my sunscreen looks uneven or if it's clumping together and leaving white marks all over my skin, okay?"

"Sure"

Ruby steps out in a bright red two-piece with a maroon stripe going across the top diagonally across her chest.

"So does it look uneven or not?"

"Hm?" Sapphire asks, but shakes her head to bring herself back into focus when she realizes it must have been staring at her.

"Oh, right. Sorry. No, it doesn't seem like it. Mind if I borrow your sunscreen? I put some on this morning, but I need to apply another layer."

"Sure" Ruby says, tossing the bottle to Sapphire. "Do you want me to wait here for you or do you want me to head down to the lake to tell your friends you're gonna be a minute?"

The thought of her friends telling Ruby the truth immediately came to her and she shakes her head. "Wait here. I'll only be a minute"

Sapphire heads into the bathroom and walks right to one of the sinks. Turning the cold water on, she scoops up a handful and splashed herself in the face with it. "It can't be. You're just feeling the way you are because it's one of the hottest days of the year. You're dizzy because the heat's getting to you. She squirts some sunscreen onto her hands, and begins to rub it into her arms, and applies the rest left over on her hands to her face. She applies some to her legs, throws a bow into her hair, and heads out the door.

"I'm ready" she says to Ruby.

Ruby turns to say something to her, but closes her mouth and turns the other way as soon as she catches glimpse of her. "Alright," she starts, and Sapphire can almost swear she hears Ruby take a deep breath before she suddenly whips her head towards Sapphire with a playful grin on her face. "Race ya to the lake!" she says, and dashes ahead of Sapphire. Sapphire laughs

 _Little do you know I'm one of the fastest runners on the track team back home._

Sapphire stretches, and sprints after Ruby. She catches her so off guard when she passes her that she trips. Sapphire skids to a stop to help her up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. I just wasn't expecting you to catch up so quickly"

"Then you shouldn't start running before someone says go"

"Yeah? Then, Ready set go!" Ruby yells quickly, and Sapphire drops her before sprinting down past their cabin onto the boardwalk where she slows down at the edge to jump in. Ruby jumps in shortly after her.

"Unfair! you dropped me" Ruby says, splashing her, and Sapphire dodges it.

"So you're telling me you faked that trip? How unsportsmanlike. I should report you to coach" She teases, and Ruby starts to laugh.

"So, wanna swim out and test how deep the water is yet?"

"Nah," Sapphire says. "We should wait for my friends"

"They didn't tell you?" Ruby turns around. Apparently she had already started swimming out to the center of the lake. "They came by when you were re-applying sunscreen that they weren't feeling up to it anymore. Last I saw of them they were headed to the nurse for something"

 _I'm going to kill them._

"No, they didn't"

"Do you still wanna check anyways?"

Sapphire smiles. This could be her chance to prove her friends wrong. "Sure, but not before we swim around a little bit"

"Alright" Ruby says, making her way back to Sapphire. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Oh, just around the lake is fine. I haven't been in this water for almost two years now and I kinda forgot how nice it felt"

Ruby shrugs. "Alright"

Ruby and Sapphire swam in a slow lap almost entirely around the lake, taking in a view of what was on the side of the lake that didn't belong to the summer camp. After a while, they swim back to shore and sit on the dock with their hands sitting behind them, almost touching. They sit in silence, watching the sun sparkle on the surface of the lake, and Sapphire can't help but be reminded of the night they watched the sunset from her secret hiking spot a week earlier. The same peaceful quietness, the same beautiful appearance of the lake, and that same intensity in the air that always seems to appear when she and Ruby are alone together, and this intensity causes them both to forget their original intention to come down to the lake in the first place.

Sapphire can't seem to place a name for this feeling, or why she would be having it when she's only with Ruby and not with any of her other friends. However, after one glance over at Ruby's soft smile as she looks out into the lake brings the word to her and confirms her friends' earlier accusations.

Love.


	6. Chapter 6

2:45 AM. That's the time flashing on the alarm clock Ruby set down next to her bed. She stares at it, watching it blink, but making no attempt to fall asleep. There would be no point of trying. Each time she does, the same thought she's been having since she and Sapphire walked back to their cabin from the lake comes back to haunt her just when she thinks she's about to fall asleep. _This is the second time you could've told her and gotten it over with and you didn't._ Ruby turns slowly onto her back, staring up at the ceiling of the dark cabin. _All this waiting is gonna kill me._ Ruby cranes her neck up to look out the window behind her bed. There are a few stars out, so she watches them twinkle for a moment before glancing over in the direction of Sapphire's bed. It's too dark to see what direction she's facing, but Ruby doesn't think it matters because she's probably fast asleep anyways. When she flips onto her side though, she notices right away that instead of fast asleep in her bed, Sapphire is pacing back in forth in the middle of her cabin.

Ruby sits up in bed and turns her lamp light on, smiling sleepily at her. "You too, huh?"

Sapphire jumps at Ruby's words, and turns to look at her. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, did I wake you?" she asks as she makes her way back over to her own bed and sits down on it.

"Nah, I've been up for a while. I've just got a lot on my mind" Ruby says, and Sapphire sighs with relief.

"Oh, good. Not that you've been up for a while, but because I didn't wake you. I've actually been up for a while too and I thought you might've heard me pacing around the room"

"Nope, I haven't heard a thing. Why were you even pacing around the room in the first place?"

"Well, to be honest, I've had a lot on my mind recently too."

"Really?" Ruby asks, pulling the blanket off of her. "Do you want to maybe talk about it?"

Sapphire thought for a minute. "No, but I have been meaning to ask you something for a while."

 _Oh boy. Here it is. She's figured it out. You blew it._

"Oh, uh, okay, just give me a minute. I'm gonna turn the lights on so I can see you better" Ruby says as she stands up.

 _Stupid! All you're doing is making it even MORE obvious._

Sapphire squints as Ruby turns the lights of the cabin on, but seems adjusted to it when Ruby makes her way back over to her bed. When she sits down on her bed, Sapphire gets up off of her own bed and sits next to Ruby on hers. She takes one of Ruby's hands in her own, which causes Ruby to blush. Sapphire sighs, and Ruby looks over at her.

"Ruby, I need to ask you something"

"Okay?" Ruby says, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"You've been losing an awful lot of sleep lately. Is it because of me? Would you prefer if I asked for a new roommate?"

"What?" Ruby yells, but then covers her mouth with her free hand embarrassingly. "No, not at all! I love having you as a roommate."

"But I can't help but feel I'm the reason you stay up so late every night"

Ruby sighs. "Sapphire, you're one of the quietest sleepers I've ever met in my entire life. You don't snore, you don't talk in your sleep, and you don't even toss and turn! You lie down in bed and you stay perfectly still until you wake up in the morning"

"Then what about you? I know for a fact this isn't the first time you've stayed up this late before"

"Sapphire…" Ruby starts, but her voice fades out when Sapphire looks her dead in the eyes. "I told you, I've been thinking about a lot of different things. My mom, my friends back home, the fact that I might not get to see you again after I go home…" Ruby freezes. She hadn't meant to say that last one.

"Is that all?" Sapphire asks. "You're gonna miss me?"

Ruby sighs. There's no point in hiding that she definitely _will_ miss Sapphire when she goes home in July.

"Yes, that's all."

"Promise?"

"Promise"

"Well, that's okay, because we still have a few weeks left. And trust me; I am NOT going to let you get off that bus without your phone number."

"Good" Ruby says.

"Do you think you'll be able to fall asleep now?"

Ruby snickered. "Do you? Don't forget you were up too. Why don't we just talk a little bit longer until we fall asleep? I'll go turn the lights off"

Sapphire lets go of Ruby's hand to let her stand up. Ruby walks back over to the light switch and turns the lights off. When she sits back down on her bed, she sits on Sapphire's hand, which causes her to jump up.

"Aren't you going to go back to your bed?"

"Nah, I'll go when I'm really tired." Sapphire yawns. "It won't be long. Sit back down" She pats at the spot next to her, and rests her hand on her lap when Ruby sits back down. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Hmm...I've talked your ears off about my life back home, what about you?"

"Hm, let's see. My mom is a really quiet person, doesn't talk to too many people. She has a fairly good job, so I had a fairly good childhood. I didn't have many friends growing up, because I took after my mom's quiet demeanor. I've got a few siblings, but they're quiet too."

"Wow… you don't seem very quiet to me"

"Yeah, that's because you're really easy to open up to. People like you are really hard to come across"

Ruby smiles. "Aw geez, thanks. People like you are really hard to come across, too."

They sit in silence for a while, smiling at each other. The silence is only broken when Sapphire yawns, and when Ruby yawns in response, Sapphire giggles in a tired manner.

"Okay, I think we're good here" Sapphire says. "I'm gonna go back to my own bed now." She begins to stand up, but Ruby grabs her arm.

"Nooooo" she says sleepily, and Sapphire laughs.

"Alright but only for a few more minutes, and then I'm going back to sleep" She sits back down, and almost immediately, Ruby rests her head on Sapphire's shoulders.

"Ruby?" Sapphire asks, looking over at her

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sleepy"

"Then lie down on your own bed"

"No, you're softer and you promise you'd stay here a few minutes longer" Ruby yawns. "If I fall asleep push me off"

There's a small pause. "Fine, but only for another minute. Then I'm going back to my own bed"

A loud banging on the door is what wakes Ruby up the next morning. When she goes to sit up, she finds herself on top of Sapphire, only inches away from her face. When she accidentally pushes on Sapphire's stomach while she's trying to stand up, Sapphire wakes up as well, and when she tries to stand up, her head smashes against Ruby's.

"Ow!" Ruby yells, and she rolls off of Sapphire and off of her bed. She hits the floor with a loud thud. This scares Sapphire into doing the same thing.

"Ruby, was I still on your bed when you woke up this morning?"

"This morning?" Ruby asks. There's more loud banging at the door. "I only woke up a few seconds ago. I'm just as confused as you"

"That can't be. You only laid your head on my shoulder for like, a minute"

"Huh. Maybe we both passed out, then"

Before they can comprehend anything else, there's a click at the door, and a few counselors, along with a large group of other campers pile into their room. Two of Sapphire's friends push past them, and when they see the two of them lying on the floor on top of each other, they smirk at Sapphire. She gives them a don't-you-dare look, but the cheeky smiles never leave their faces.

"Here they are!" One of them says, and the rest of the group piles into their small cabin.

"There you two are!" One of the two counselors says. "It's 11:30; we've been worried sick about you guys!"

"What?" Ruby and Sapphire say in unison.

"We've been looking for you since 9 this morning; we thought you two had left the camp!"

"I'm- I'm sorry" Sapphire says, standing up, but Ruby gets up and steps in front of her.

"No, don't blame her, it's my fault. I was up really late last night and she was just trying to get me to go to sleep. If anyone should be getting in trouble it's me."

The two counselors look at each other. "Fine." One of them turns to the rest of the group. "You my return to your activities. Sapphire, you can go. We want to talk to Ruby alone for a moment."

The rest of the group turns around and leaves. Sapphire hesitates, but eventually she follows the rest of the group. As soon as she gets out the door, her friends come up from behind her and throw their arms over her shoulders.

"So, you and Ruby, huh?"

"Oh shut up, it's not like that"

"Of course it is! Do you really think our search group didn't come by your cabin earlier? We saw her on top of you"

Sapphire blushes. "On top of me?"

"We could see it through the window clear as day. Your foreheads were touching"

"But we were sleeping! Honest!"

Her friends laugh. "We know you were sleeping. What we're wondering is why she would be on top of you"

Sapphire's blush deepens. "We were talking last night is all. She rested her head on my shoulder and then I think we both passed out after that."

"Talking?" one of them says, smiling. "So you told her?"

"No"

Her friends glance at each other. "Okay, sure you didn't"

Sapphire pauses. "What makes you think I did?"

"Oh, please" One of them brings their hand to her face. "Most people don't stay up that late talking to each other, and they CERTAINLY don't rest on each other's shoulders unless they're really close. You had to have told her. You're just being shy about it. It's okay"

One of them turns their head. "Oh, look. Here she comes now. We'll leave you two alone. Have fun with your girlfriend!" They tease as they run off, and Sapphire only hides her face in her hands.

Sapphire stands where she is, ta bunch of different thoughts rushing to her head. _Your girlfriend. Your girlfriend. Your girlfriend. I can't believe I'm falling for her. I can't believe they think she's already my girlfriend. If they let her know prematurely, I'm done for. I can't let them tell her. I've gotta do it myself._ She's about to run after her friends to tell her the truth, when she feels a hand touch her shoulder. This scares her enough to flinch at the motion. When she turns around, she's met with a concerned Ruby.

"Oh, hey Ruby" she says.

"Are you okay? I saw your friends run off without you and then I saw you bring your hands to your face"

"Oh, yeah, it's alright, they were just teasing me, they do that all the time" The blush on Sapphire's face worsens.

"You sure?"

"Yeah…" Sapphire pauses, desperate to chance the subject. "What did the counselors say to you, anyways?"

Ruby seems a bit taken aback by the sudden change. "Oh, not much. They just told me to be careful and to go to bed earlier. Blah blah blah, standard stuff. It doesn't matter." She begins walking, and Sapphire follows close behind her. She looks back at Sapphire after a while and frowns. "Are you sure you're okay? You don't look so good. Do you want me to take you to the nurse?"

"Yes" Sapphire says, more out of instinct than anything else.

"Alright, then let's go. I'll wait outside for you"

They walk in silence to the nurse's office, and Ruby leans next to the door when they get there. She opens it for Sapphire.

"Thank you" she says, and walks in.

As soon as the door closes, Ruby walks around to the side of the building and leans against it. _She was blushing._ She slides down the wall. _She was blushing over ME._ She brings her hands to her face and sighs, before moving her hands away and looking up at the sky.

 _I can't do this anymore._

Ruby glances around at the trees surrounding the nurse's office.

 _I can't wait much longer_

 _I've got to tell her sooner._


	7. Chapter 7

"There" Ruby says as she drops the armful of campfire wood onto the campfire spot at Sapphire's secret hideout. "That should be enough to cover it". She wipes the sweat off of her forehead, and then looks down at her hands to check for any splinters. When she spots a small one in her thumb, she grabs it with her teeth and spits it out.

Ever since she brought Sapphire to the nurse a few days ago, Ruby's been planning and preparing her confession to Sapphire. While Sapphire was still at the nurse's office, Ruby headed down to the ranger station and picked the lock on the supply of campfire wood and stole an armful. She kicked the door closed behind her, but she was too busy focusing on what she was preparing to do to check if she locked it.

Ruby glanced up at the clearing. The sun had already set, but it's not dark out yet. Ruby smiles. Perfect. She won't be able to take Sapphire out to the middle of the lake to confess to her until tomorrow, but the fact that she finished gathering the firewood for what she had planned afterwards was enough. Today was her free day, and Sapphire knew that Ruby usually spent her free day by herself, so she doesn't have to worry about being interrogated by Sapphire when she gets back to her cabin. Realizing she probably looks disgusting, she decides to take a shower. She walks back to her cabin and stops at the door, and notices Sapphire lying on her bed reading a book. Trying not to disturb her, Ruby opens the door slowly and closes it behind her. Not quietly enough, apparently, because Sapphire looks up from her book and smirks at her.

"And where have you been? Do you have any idea how late it is?" She teases, and Ruby laughs.

"Nowhere mom, GOD" she teases, and flops down on herbed dramatically. This causes Sapphire to giggle, and Ruby blushes.

"Oh, that reminds me actually" Ruby sits up. "What did the nurse say? Are you okay?"

"Psssh, yeah, don't worry about it" Sapphire says. "All she did was give me a cup of cold water before she sent me back here. What about you? Where have you been all day?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well, the real reason I came back to the cabin is because I was looking for you, but you weren't here."

Ruby blushes at the thought that Sapphire was looking for her, but shakes the thought off. "Oh, I was just going for a walk in the woods"

"Really?" Sapphire sits up. "You? I thought you hated being anywhere other than in here with all the lights out."

"Oh, no. I walked to the spot you showed me" Ruby says, and then brings her hands to her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that.

Sapphire laughs. "Would you look at that? I'm starting to have an influence on you, aren't I?" She giggles some more, and Ruby thinks she can see her blushing a little bit.

Ruby smiles at her warmly. "I guess you are. There's something…" she pauses for a brief moment. "Beautiful about this place I guess I couldn't see before"

Sapphire returns the smile. "I'm glad" she says, and the two of them sit there in silence for a moment. Too familiar with the situation, Ruby jumps up off of her bed to break the silence.

"I'm going to take a shower. I'll be right back"

"Oh" Sapphire says, taken aback by Ruby's sudden outburst. "Okay."

Ruby quickly grabs a red t-shirt and a pair of black shorts and rushes out the door. When she gets to the showers, she slams the door behind her and slides down the wall.

 _You idiot! You moron! That's the third time you could have told her! In privacy too! She probably thinks you're stupid. She probably thinks you're crazy for running out like that._

Ruby stands up and walks over to one of the sinks. She turns the cold water on, and splashes herself in the face with some of it. She looks at herself in the sink, and sighs.

 _Okay. Relax. You're okay. She probably doesn't think you're crazy. It was partially your fault. You jumped up and left kind of suddenly. It's okay. It won't affect how she feels about you._

Ruby pushed away the last thought as she felt herself beginning to blush again. Looking down at the clothes she dropped on the matt under the sink, she picks it up, walks into a shower stall, and turns the water on.

She's exhausted by the time she finishes her shower. After she gets dressed, she throws her towel around her neck and pushes her way out of the bathroom. It's much darker than before when she steps outside, and she pauses in her return to look up at the sky. A few stars are twinkling in the sky, but since it's still kind of early, Ruby knows that there's going to be a lot more stars in the sky later tonight. And if this is what the sky looks like tonight, Ruby can't imagine how beautiful it's going to be tomorrow night. She continues her return back to the cabin, and is too tired to notice that Sapphire left. She walks over to her bed, flops down on it, and falls asleep.

Ruby had only intended on taking a small nap, but when she wakes up, there's sunlight shining through the window. She jumps up, worried that she overslept, but is calmed when she looks over and realizes Sapphire is still asleep in her bed. She looks over at her clock for reassurance anyways, and sighs with relief when she realizes it's only 8:30. Not wanting to disturb Sapphire by leaving the cabin, Ruby opens her cabinet and pulls out her schedule. She flips to today's date, and scans it for any mention of canoe rides on it. She finally finds it on the noon spot, and smiles. Confident in herself that her plan will work, she quietly places her schedule back and quietly walks out the door.

Although she had only said it to prevent Sapphire from questioning her any further, there is truth in what Ruby said about getting to like the camp. As she makes her way down to the lake, she looks around at the camp. The quiet cabins, the warm smell of waffles coming from the mess hall, and the beautiful glittering lake. As much as she hated to admit it, Ruby was growing to like being forced to stay here.

"Ruby! You're up early" A counselor's voice says, and Ruby turns around to see one coming towards her.

"Yeah" Ruby says, rubbing the back of her head. "I just wanted to walk down to the lake before breakfast and take a look at the canoes."

"Okay, just don't go for a free ride or anything" The counselor says, and Ruby rolls her eyes.

"Aye aye, sir" she says sarcastically, and the counselor walks away. Ruby picks up her steps, and begins running towards the canoes as soon as her feet touch sand. She stops in front of a red one, and walks the long way around it with her hand dragging along its side. She looks inside at the oars, and, looking around to make sure nobody's around, she picks one of them up. She walks over to the lake, and after checking to make sure nobody's watching her again, she kicks her shoes off and begins to walk into the water. She continues to walk until the water is touching the rim of her shorts, and she chucks the oar into the water in front of her to see if it'll sink. It does.

She sighs, looking down at her clothes. The last thing she needs is Sapphire to be suspicious. But she also knows that if any of the counselors find out that one of the canoe oars went missing, they would blame her and she wouldn't be allowed on the canoe, which would ruin her entire plan. So she plugs her nose, takes a deep breath, and dives under the water after the oar. When she surfaces, she notices the flag rising in the distance, so she hurriedly swims to the surface and sloppily tosses it into the canoe it belongs in.

Ruby squeezes her hair dry and paces back and forth on the beach to dry herself off a little. She doesn't feel like walking back to her cabin, and breakfast won't be starting for another ten minutes. If she's not as wet, maybe people won't ask her as many questions about what happened to her. Since the only thing the pacing is doing is sticking a bunch of sand to her legs, she stops. When she starts to smell waffles, she looks out at the campground and watches as people exit and make their way over to the mess hall. Ruby walks back over to the canoe and puts her shoe on before running over to the line of kids waiting for breakfast.

Just as she's entering the mess hall, a group of Sapphire's friends come up from behind her and tap her on the shoulder.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is"

"Huh?"

"Oh, don't play dumb with us. We saw you at the lake"

"Y-you did?" Ruby asks nervously, and one of them laughs. "Of course we did. Don't think we don't know what you're doing"

Ruby freezes up inside, and pulls one of them by the shirt collar close. "Don't you dare say a word to her. If Sapphire asks, the reason I'm soaking wet is because you guys pushed me in" She lets go of the shirt collar, and the friend only responds by laughing in her face.

"Oh, so this is about Sapphire, huh?" He asks, and Sapphire's other friends begin laughing as well.

"Wha-What's so funny about that?"

One of them snorts. "We didn't say anything about Sapphire"

Ruby starts to blush, and turns away from them to get her food.

"You really do like her, don't you?" One girl says, and Ruby doesn't respond. She turns away from them and sits down at the closest table.

"Hey." The same girl says, and sits down next to Ruby once she gets her own food. "I think it's great. Sapphire is one of my best friends. I want her to be happy, and to tell you the truth, I think she really likes you"

"Really?" Ruby perks up, and the girl nods.

"Really" the girl says, and stands up. "Good luck" she says, which only causes Ruby to blush. Ruby sits there in silence for a moment, until a tray dropping down next to hers scares her.

"There you are!" Sapphire says, and sits down next to her. "I've been looking all over for you. Who knew you'd be in the one place I didn't bother to look."

Ruby nods, but can't bring herself to laugh.

Sapphire frowns. "What's wrong?" She starts, and then takes a good long look at Ruby. "And why are you soaking wet?"

Ruby sighs. "It's your friends. They pushed me into the lake"

"What?" Sapphire says, jumping up. The anger in her voice scared Ruby a little bit.

"I'm sorry." She starts. She must have noticed Ruby jump. "It's just… So unlike them to be as rude as they have been to you. They usually love my new friends. I wonder why they're being so different with you"

 _Yeah, I wonder_

"Do you want me to go talk to them?" Sapphire asks, starting to walk towards their table, but Ruby jumps up and grabs her arm.

"NO!" she yells, but then clears her throat. "I mean no" she says in a quieter tone. "It doesn't bother me. It's fine"

"Are you sure?" Sapphire asks, her deep blue eyes filling with concern.

Ruby blushes. "I'm sure"

"Okay" Sapphire says, sitting down. "But if they start getting to you, let me know and I'll beat them up for you"

Ruby laughs. "Okay"

"See, there you go. Feeling better already" Sapphire says, and Ruby laughs again.

 _I can't believe I'm doing this today. This is going to be great._

It's 11:00, and Ruby's hear is pounding on her chest. She's been practicing what she's been going to say to Sapphire since last night, and now it's finally happening. She feels like if her heart beats any faster her heart's going to beat right out of her chest.

She takes a deep breath and sits down on her bed. She opens the drawer next to her bed and pulls out the book Sapphire had leant her. She doesn't open it, but she rubs her hand across the cover gently. It's going to be okay. Sapphire is a gentle person. If by the off chance she doesn't feel the same, she'll let her down gently. Ruby places the book back in the drawer and pulls her notebook out. And they'll still be friends. Ruby opens up her notebook to the pages she had scribbled all over with information about Sapphire on her first night in camp and smiles. She reads through each of them, and when she reaches the end of the page, she flips to the next page. Not to her surprise, there are more notes on the next page about Sapphire as well, so she takes the time to read through that page too.

She gets through about half of her notebook when she looks over and sees that it's almost noon. Her heart beat, which had calmed down when she was reading was now spiking up again. She tosses her notebook into her drawer, and runs out the door by the beach.

Sapphire is already at the beach, so Ruby squeezes past the rest of the campers to stand with her. The counselors are saying something about canoe safety, but Ruby is too focused on Sapphire. She looks away from Sapphire after she realizes she's probably staring at her, and instead she focuses on the counselor to pretend like she's listening to what they're saying. After a few moments the counselor blows the whistle and all the kids around her run over to the canoes on the other side of the beach. Ruby shakes her distracting thoughts away and grabs Sapphire by the hand before she can run off.

"I was down here earlier. I know just the canoe to use" she says, and runs over to the red canoe she had been messing with earlier. The second oar is still floppily thrown into the bottom of the canoe, and Ruby sighs with relief that she chose the right one.

"Okay. You get in, and I'll push" Ruby says, and Sapphire laughs.

"Aye aye, sir" she says, unknowingly repeating the joke Ruby had made earlier. Ruby brushes off the blush and begins pushing the canoe in the water. Once it's not dragging on the sand at the bottom anymore, Ruby jumps in and grabs the oar Sapphire did not.

"So, have you ever been canoeing before?" Sapphire asks. "You sure didn't seem to be paying attention to the instructions she was giving"

Ruby blushes. She wasn't aware Sapphire had noticed. "Oh, yeah, a bunch of times. I used to go to the beach with my friend Jade all the time and we'd rent a canoe and ride the waves. If I can handle the ocean, I can handle a lake"

Sapphire laughs. "Good"

They begin to paddle in silence for a while, both of them looking around the surrounding area. Ruby keeps looking down at the water to see how deep it is. After circling around the outside of the lake for a bit, Ruby suggests they try to go to the middle of the lake. Once they're in the very center of the lake, Ruby quietly takes a deep breath and drops her oar into the water, making it look like an accident.

"Oh no!" Ruby says as she leans over the side of the canoe

"Ruby!" Sapphire says, leaning over to watch the oar sink as well.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened!"

"It's okay" Sapphire says, and Ruby puts her hand on Sapphire's shoulder and looks into her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Ruby asks, and Sapphire looks deep into Ruby's eyes for a moment before visibly calming down.

"I'm sure. I'm sure someone will come by later and see we're stuck. Until then I guess we just get to relax and enjoy each other's company" Sapphire says, and they both sit and smile at each other momentarily.

"Look, about that, Sapphire, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you" Ruby says, and she takes Sapphire's hands in her own.

"There's no easy way to put this" she says, and closes her eyes and sighs.

"Sapphire?" she says, and opens her eyes to look deep into Sapphire's.

"I…..like you. A lot". She says, and quickly stands up to sit next to Sapphire on her side of the canoe. "A lot a lot. I think I'm in love with you" she says, and watches as a large blush appears on Sapphire's face. She doesn't say anything at first, but then breaks out into hysterical laughter. Ruby frowns, but when she tries to stand up to move back over to her own side of the canoe, Sapphire grabs her arm and pulls her back down.

"Are you kidding?" She says, failing miserably to stop herself from laughing. "I've been trying to figure out a way to tell you the same thing since last night, and in that short time frame, you planned ALL of this?" She says, and begins to laugh again. "I'm sorry for laughing, I know it's inappropriate" She says, wiping a tear away from her eyes. She takes a deep breath, and this time she takes Ruby's hands in her own. "But I'm being serious. I think I'm in love with you too"

"Really?" Ruby exclaims happily, and Sapphire nods.

"Really"

The two of them start to lean in to kiss, when all of a sudden they hear the sound of someone coming towards them. Embarrassed, Ruby scrambles to get back to her side of the canoe, and reaches down for the oar that isn't there. When they look up, they notice a counselor in a larger canoe coming towards them.

"Are you two okay? Why aren't you moving?"

Ruby and Sapphire exchange glances. Sapphire must now by now that Ruby dropped her oar on purpose at this point, and that's not exactly an easy thing to explain. Sapphire sighs, and opens her mouth, but Ruby cuts her off

"I dropped my oar. I guess my arms got tired and I didn't realize how deep the water was. I was distracted with something else" She says, and Sapphire snickers at that comment.

"Alright, then get in my canoe. I'll bring you two back to the beach to get a new canoe. We'll try to get the oar back for now but next time you should be very careful not to let it go. Do you understand?" She says, and they both nod.

One at a time, Ruby and Sapphire hop out of their own canoe and into the counselor's canoe. They're silent on the ride back to the beach, but as soon as their feet touch sand, Ruby grabs Sapphire's hand and drags her over to the few remaining canoes.

"Hey, I have an idea" Ruby says in a whispery voice, and Sapphire smirks.

"Oh yeah?" She says, and Ruby pushes her away.

"No, not like that!" She says, but can't help but smile.

"Meet me at your private camp spot at about 8 tonight"

"And you promise you're not going to pull anything weird on me?" Sapphire asks, and Ruby pulls her into a quick kiss on the lips.

"I promise." Ruby says, and jumps up onto one of the canoes. She holds her hand out to Sapphire. "Do you trust me?" She says, and Sapphire giggles, taking Ruby's hand.

"Yes" she says, and pulls Ruby into another quick kiss.

Ruby whistles happily as she makes her way over to the spot she's supposed to be meeting Sapphire in. She has her hands in her pocket, as she's holding a lighter to start the fire with. As she gets closer and closer to the spot, her happy whistling turns into humming, and it's not long before she realizes she's humming Sapphire's song.

She takes the lighter out of her pocket and begins to mess with it. She doesn't have a flashlight, and it's pretty dark in the middle of the woods. However, once she's in the clearing, it's much brighter, and when she looks up, not only does she see the moon, but also a thousand shining stars. Ruby smiles, and walks over to the pile of wood. She sets fire to one of the logs, and pushes the others around with a stick and blows on it until they all catch fire. Stick in hand, she walks over to the log she and Sapphire had sat on before and waits for her to arrive.

She only has to wait about five minutes before Sapphire comes into the clearing. She doesn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings, as she walks right up to the log and sits down beside Ruby without noticing the camp fire.

"Alright, what did you want me to come here f-" She starts, but all of a sudden realization floods over her.

"Woah…" she says, and stands up and backs away from the log. "Ruby, this is…"she pauses to look at Ruby, who smiles.

"Beautiful? I figured you'd say that. But this isn't the least of it" Ruby says, and stands up. She places her hands around Sapphire's waist.

"Look up" she says, and Sapphire gasps loudly when she sees how many stars are out.

"Ruby, I'm speechless…." Sapphire says as Ruby leads her back to the log. "You did this all for me?" She asks, and Ruby smiles and lifts up her hands, revealing a bunch of band aids on each hand.

"And it was worth every splinter" She says, and leans her head on Sapphire's shoulder, who smiles.

"So, I'm assuming the only reason you brought me up here wasn't just to serenade me with the beautiful moon, no?"

"Well, I was gonna ask for you to bring marshmallows, but I didn't want to give anything away. So I guess we just have to talk. That okay with you?" She asks, and Sapphire giggles.

"Of course." There's a short pause, and Sapphire begins to speak again. "You know, I'm still really grateful you stopped the bus for me."

"Yeah? You're welcome"

"No, you don't understand" Sapphire leans away from Ruby, who looks at her. "I mean, you're the reason I'm here tonight. If it weren't for your random act of kindness, we wouldn't be sitting here tonight" She says, and this time she leans her head on Ruby's shoulder. She takes Ruby's hand and squeezes it tightly. Ruby leans on Sapphire's head, and looks up at the stars. She feels truly at bliss, sitting here under the stars with the girl of her dreams. Ruby doesn't think she's ever felt happier. After a while she feels Sapphire stir, so she sits up.

"Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I know this is really soon, but…" she pauses and turns to face Ruby. "I love you" she says, and Ruby smiles.

"I love you, too" she says, and they both lean in to kiss.

All of a sudden, however, a group of campers being led by a counselor with a flashlight barge through the clearing, causing Ruby and Sapphire to fall backwards off the log. The counselor flashes the light on the two of them, and the kid standing next to the counselor steps forward and points at them.

"BUSTED!"


End file.
